For A Reason
Neuma, 2023
9/10
A body of work that spans three decades, Roger Reynolds recruits Pablo Gómez Cano, Paul Hembree, Irvine Arditti, Steven Schick and Liz Pearse for two discs of very well thought out electroacoustic sounds.
“Dream Mirror (Sharespace I)” opens the listen with Cano’s varied and cultured guitar playing alongside Hembree’s creative computer manipulation that’s firm, bare and sometimes even mysterious, and “Shifting/Drifting (Sharespace IV)” follows with Arditti’s stirring violin that lends itself to the gripping ambience which quivers, floats and blurs itself in a very cinematic fashion.
The back half of the listen leads with Schnick’s speaking percussion that draws us in with its vocals that are used like an instrument amid the thumping and often booming drums, and “Sketchbook (For The Unbearable Lightness Of Being)” exits with Pearse’s low vocals alongside the graceful piano and Hembree’s computer skills for a very expressive and atypical version of contemporary classic sounds.
A 44 page book accompanies the package, as Reynolds and company make for an experimental and intriguing listen that is superbly delivered.
Travels well with: Lebeha Drummers- Biama; Aaron Jay Myers- Late Night Banter